Tank
19-04-2008, 10:08 AM
Excerpt from 'Living the Low Carb Life' by Jonny Bowden
www.jonnybowden.meta-health.com
You got to be careful with these. I definitely don't recommend them during the first two weeks, when you're adjusting to this new way of eating. For one thing, the market has been saturated with this new class of candy-I mean snack food-and predictably; the bars vary in quality from complete junk to not so bad. Some of the best are PaleoBar, available only through Designs for Health, Sears Labs Omega-3 Zone (don't confuse them with the Zone bars found in every grocery store), and the Atkins bars, available everywhere.
All protein bars are not created equal and the term energy bar is a complete marketing scam. Energy, in the parlance of nutrition, simply means calories, but manufacturers want you to think that eating one of their bars will make you feel like running a marathon. Not so. In fact, most energy bars are loaded with carbs. Almost all have hydrogenated fats (trans-fats). Protein bars specifically have more protein and often less carbs, but you still have to read the labels. Some are as high as 330 calories, not exactly snack food.
In addition, they have sweeteners like sorbitol or mannitol, which are sugar alcohols that still need to be counted if you're counting carbs. Mannitol, especially may give you gas. And even dear Dr. Atkins doesn't count the glycerine (also know as glycerol) when he tells you there's only 2 or 3 grams of effective carbs in his bars. That's controversial: glycerol-an odorless, colorless, sweet-tasting liquid-is used as a sweetener and is classified as a carbohydrate, but Atkins claims that because it does not impact blood sugar in the same way sugar does, it shouldn't be counted as part of the net (effective) carb content in his bars. Maybe; maybe not. Many low-carbers do find that it slows down their weight loss; others don't. In any case, stick with real food and hold off on the bars for a few weeks until you get your bearings in this new way of eating.
www.jonnybowden.meta-health.com
You got to be careful with these. I definitely don't recommend them during the first two weeks, when you're adjusting to this new way of eating. For one thing, the market has been saturated with this new class of candy-I mean snack food-and predictably; the bars vary in quality from complete junk to not so bad. Some of the best are PaleoBar, available only through Designs for Health, Sears Labs Omega-3 Zone (don't confuse them with the Zone bars found in every grocery store), and the Atkins bars, available everywhere.
All protein bars are not created equal and the term energy bar is a complete marketing scam. Energy, in the parlance of nutrition, simply means calories, but manufacturers want you to think that eating one of their bars will make you feel like running a marathon. Not so. In fact, most energy bars are loaded with carbs. Almost all have hydrogenated fats (trans-fats). Protein bars specifically have more protein and often less carbs, but you still have to read the labels. Some are as high as 330 calories, not exactly snack food.
In addition, they have sweeteners like sorbitol or mannitol, which are sugar alcohols that still need to be counted if you're counting carbs. Mannitol, especially may give you gas. And even dear Dr. Atkins doesn't count the glycerine (also know as glycerol) when he tells you there's only 2 or 3 grams of effective carbs in his bars. That's controversial: glycerol-an odorless, colorless, sweet-tasting liquid-is used as a sweetener and is classified as a carbohydrate, but Atkins claims that because it does not impact blood sugar in the same way sugar does, it shouldn't be counted as part of the net (effective) carb content in his bars. Maybe; maybe not. Many low-carbers do find that it slows down their weight loss; others don't. In any case, stick with real food and hold off on the bars for a few weeks until you get your bearings in this new way of eating.